Hampi & Badami Part 2

A human body is amazing machine, if it is not doing anything, it starts thinking, about things you have seen, experienced and then it starts connecting different things from different timelines, helping you to complete, some of your incomplete stories. After a long day in Hampi I was in bus, tired and wanted to sleep but the roads made sure, that I wont. The thing about Indian road trips is that, you realize, you are traveling by road almost every minute and if you have a last seat in the bus, you might even get free massage also! Now you can imagine how my journey was from Hampi to Badami. Body that needed sleep and mind that wont stop thinking.

And then I found a piece of my incomplete story. Years ago, after a particular terrorist attack I was completely shaken and I was not able to understand, ‘how can people kill someone and was in distress for many days, before a friend of mine stated something, which seemed very normal for him, “that’s Human nature! A vengeful mind does everything to weaken its enemy!”

I just had seen a city, even in its ruined state it was a marvel. I needed a reason to understand all the destruction. And I couldn’t find any. Even if the sultan wanted to win the city, why would he destroy it? It was a gold mine, the biggest market in India. The city had everything you need to have a good kingdom, why destroy it? An elderly couple traveling with us gave me the missing piece of my story, “If you want to conquer someone, destroy their faith, destroy their hope first. And that’s what sultan did. He destroyed temple to destroy the faith and all the other grand structures to destroy the hope.” But this information only increased the unrest inside me. That day in bus for whole 3 hours, all I could think was, how vengeful can a human mind be! It doesn’t understand how to help another human being, but perfectly understands that you need to break the other person to conquer them.

Next day started with my favorite filter kapfi and we were set to watch more ruins, more marvels and more thinking. We were going to place called Pattadakal,where there are 5 different kinds of architectural constructions in one place. In hindu religion, if any idol is broken, it is not to be worshiped. And after reaching Pattadakal 1st thing our guide told us was, only 1 of those temples had a unbroken idol. And bang, you can have the temples but it wont be of any significance. I was angry and sad and confused. A simple visit to a ruin temple can make you feel so many fucked up emotions. Who need relationships to fuck you up, when you have your own emotions!

As for the Pattadakal, the site is just amazing! It represents the high point of an eclectic art which, in the 7th and 8th centuries under the Chalukya dynasty, achieved a harmonious blend of architectural forms from northern and southern India. An impressive series of nine Hindu temples, as well as a Jain sanctuary, can be seen there. One masterpiece from the group stands out – the Temple of Virupaksha, built in 740 A.D. by Queen Lokamahadevi to commemorate her husband’s victory over the kings from the South.

The oldest temple at Pattadakal is Sangamesvara built by Vijayaditya Satyasraya (AD 697-733). The other notable temples at Pattadakal are the Kadasiddhesvara, Jambulingeswara both attributed to 7th century A.D. while Galaganatha temple was built a century later in the style of rekha nagara prasada. The Kasivisvesvara temple was the last to be built in early Chalukyan style. The Mallikarjuna temple was constructed by Rani Trilokyamahadevi to celebrate the victory over the Pallavas by Vikramaditya II. She is also credited to have built the Virupaksha temple influenced by the architecture of the Kailasanatha temple at Kanchipuram. The Virupaksha temple later served as a model for the Rashtrakuta ruler Krishna I (757 -783 A.D.) to carve out the great Kailasa at Ellora.

However, the last addition at Pattadakal was made during the reign of Rashtrakuta ruler Krishna II of the 9th century A.D. in form of a Jaina temple, locally famous as Jaina Narayana, with its two lower storeys functional.

One can see the stories from the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavata and Panchatantra craved on the pillers and walls of all these temples. Some even depicted the culture of that time.

Later we went to Aihole, also known as According to legend of Lord Parshurama, after avenging the death of his father, he came down to the river Malaprabha and washed his blood stained hands and axe. The blood turned the river red. A woman saw this and screamed in Kannada, ‘Ayyo Hole’ means ‘Oh No Blood’, hence it is called as Aihole.

Aihole was once the capital of the Chalukya Dynasty and has more than 125 temples in the primises. We visited only few important site such as Durga Temple & Ladg Khan Temple. These temples have carvings which are a treat to your eyes. Even here, you will find all the temples broken! It has big lushy green law in front of it making it look even more elegant.

Any trip is incomplete without two fundamental things, shopping and bonfire. We enjoyed both these things in Badami. Every moment with some crazy fun loving people in your life can become a lifetime memory.